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Achievement awards

The Phi Beta Kappa Association of Maine has announced the winners of more than 100 Academic Achievement Awards in Maine high schools this spring. The awards are given to a high school junior in each participating school who demonstrates academic achievement and intellectual curiosity both in and beyond the classroom, and who is going on to higher education.

By sponsoring these awards, the Phi Beta Kappa Association of Maine seeks to foster a greater commitment to the study of the liberal arts and sciences. Area winners are:

. Amanda Hall, Bangor Christian Schools.

. Min Hwang, Bangor High School.

. Maria Liberatore, Brewer High School.

. Rachel Trafton, Central High School, Corinth.

. Michael Bommarito, Hampden Academy.

. Gerald Reynolds, Hermon High School.

. Margaret Lammert, John Bapst Memorial High School, Bangor.

. Sophia Arabadjis, Orono High School.

Citizenship Washington Focus

ORRINGTON – Anthony L. Severance Jr., 17, of Orrington, recently attended Citizenship Washington Focus, a six-day intensive summer citizenship program.

Delegates stayed at the National 4-H Conference Center in Chevy Chase, Md., with youth from across the country. It is one of the largest national leadership educational programs and is conducted by the National 4-H Council.

University of Maine Cooperative Extension-Hancock County sponsored Severange, whose selection was based on his 4-H resume and application.

Severance is entering his senior year at Brewer High School, where he is active in extracurricular activities, including Brewer Youth Theatre.

As a member of the Alternative Spring Break Program, he spent April vacation volunteering with other BHS students at Portland’s Habitat for Humanity.

In June, Severance was one of three Brewer students attending the American Legion’s Dirigo Boys’ State program.

He is a 12-year member and current club president of Buckstown 4-H. Over the course of his membership, he has completed numerous 4-H projects.

Citizenship Washington Focus is an educational leadership program for students ages 14-19. This year, delegates learned about the democratic process and their role as citizens while they visited the nation’s capital. Participants attended workshops, committees, field trips and social events, visited Capitol Hill and met with members of Congress.

Strategy sessions included committee work, selection of issues, introduction of a bill and a mock legislative process. After learning and observing several successful youth-coordinated projects, delegates were asked to implement a program in their own community.

For more information, visit www.4hcwf.org.

Colleges

University of Maine at Augusta

AUGUSTA and BANGOR – Students at the University of Maine at Augusta and University College in Bangor named to the dean’s list for the spring semester earned a 3.25 grade point average or higher.

Bangor: Emily Alley, Daniel Astran, Abby Buchanan, Nicki-Jo Colangelo, Heather Collins, Aimee Costello, Joshua Cyr, Martha Decastro, Paul Denty, Emily Dexter, Jonathan Fisk, Charles Gardner, William Haefele, Diane Hinckley, Laura Hinkley, Alta Kennedy, Katherine Kingsbury, Alicia Lambert, Nicole Luce, Jessica Meierdirk, Stephen Metropoulos, Jonathan Niles, Cyndi Ouellette, Angelina Russell, Laurie Ryan, Melissa Smith, Devon Thornton, Christina Violette, Jeremiah Wirth.

Bradley: David Dill.

Brewer: Whitney Beal, Heather Bodge, Jonathan Brooks, Jessica Brountas, Steven Lafollette Jr., Olivia Lantay-Howes, Pamela McKracherne, Mellisa Patterson, Heather Sprague, Eliza Marie Stoll.

Bucksport: Tina Marie Bahlinger, Kathy Pelletier, Heather Saucier, Curt Smith, Michelle Damon.

Carmel: Allen Batchelder.

Dedham: Matthew Marko.

Dixmont: Carolyn Munster.

Glenburn: Joseph Arps III, Monica Reed, Melissa Schoppee.

Greenbush: Ashley Daggett.

Hampden: Richard Lenfest, Belinda Miliano.

Hermon: Mycah Cyr, Daren England, Tonya Philbrook, Noreen Stacey.

Holden: Jenifer Koch.

Levant: Amber Dow, Amanda Foye, Shane Tatro, Carianne Watson, Shayne White.

Milford: Samantha Brown, Samantha Shorette, Hope Smith, Ashley Thibodeau.

Old Town: Karen Adelson, Brandy Baron, Kristie Hexter, Ms. Miigam’Agan, Mariam Alam.

Orland: Joan Piskura.

Orono: Aubrey Lajoie, Trudy Trask.

Orrington: Teresa Goody, James Rushmore, Jae-Lee AmVanidestine, Lynn White.

Penobscot: Alison Ahern.

Stetson: James Scott.

Veazie: Howard Frye.

Winterport: Cara Buttitta, Diane Estes, Barbara Flagg.

Castleton State College

CORINTH – Alden Gregory of Corinth graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree during commencement exercises at Castleton State College in Castleton, Vt.

Tufts University

These area students were named to the dean’s list for the spring semester at Tufts University in Medford and Somerville, Mass.:

. Emily Templeton of Bangor.

. James Rogers III of Bangor.

. Emily Lad of Glenburn.

University of Delaware

HAMPDEN – Abigail Tarbell was named to the dean’s list for the spring semester at the University of Delaware in Newark, Del. She is studying marketing.

University of Maine

ORONO – Sarah P. Glazier graduated from the University of Maine in May. Her degree in elementary education was awarded magna cum laude.

The daughter of Deborah and the late Alan Glazier of Bangor, Sarah has accepted a fourth-grade teaching position to begin in August.

University of Vermont

BANGOR – Abby Goode of Bangor graduated summa cum laude from the University of Vermont in Burlington, earning a bachelor’s degree.

Goode maintained a grade point average of 4.0 and received the Hannah Howard Award from the College of Arts and Sciences. She also earned the Samuel Bogorad Award as outstanding English major, was named the outstanding Spanish major and graduated from the John Dewey Honors Program.

Goode will embark on a two-year fellowship, teaching Spanish at a high school in New York while studying for a master of arts in teaching degree in Spanish. Through the New York City Teaching Fellowship Program, she will be enrolled at Pace University.

Maine Savings scholarships

Each year Maine Savings, based in Hampden, awards scholarships to local high school students who are members of the credit union to help in their quest for higher education.

This year, eight $500 scholarships were awarded for the second semester of college. Six of these scholarships were awarded by the scholarship committee to students from area high schools, one to a graduating senior from the Vassalboro area, and one “at large.”

Scholarship recipients are:

. Jacob Cravens, Hampden Academy graduate, studies biology at Boston College.

. Taylor Tremble, Brewer High School graduate, studies international relations at Bowdoin College.

. Stephen Laflamme, Central High School in Corinth graduate, studies athletic training at the University of Maine.

. Stephanie Russell, Bangor High School graduate, studies journalism at Purdue University.

. Tyler Case, Penquis Valley High School of Milo graduate, studies microbiology at the University of Maine.

. Tena Austin, Ellsworth High School graduate, takes liberal studies at Eastern Maine Community College.

. Catherine Kelley Johnston, Waterville High School graduate, studies biology at Bowdoin College.

. Allyssa Crane, Dexter Regional High School graduate, studies biological sciences at the University of Connecticut.

Fulbright Scholarship

ORONO – University of Maine doctoral candidate Shannon Risk has received a Fulbright U.S. Student Scholarship to study cultural and intellectual history in Canada for the 2008-09 academic year.

Researching at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, Risk will assess the women’s suffrage movements in New Brunswick and Maine.

She intends to examine in her dissertation how citizenship and the rights of citizenship were perceived in rural Maine and New Brunswick during the suffrage movement, and how those ideas play out in the 20th century.

“This project is significant in that it counters the assumption that progressive ideas only flow from urban areas, and it studies women’s political behavior across a national border in an academic field that has neglected this topic,” said Risk, a native of Independence, Iowa, who now lives in Milford. “It shows the strategies of a disfranchised group to pressure the male political system, in many respects, by creating its own political power structure.”

Risk holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, and a master’s degree in American history from UM.

She is scheduled to receive her doctorate in history, with a minor in women’s studies, in the spring of 2009. Since earning a master’s degree in 1996, Risk spent nine years working in museums, including the Susan B. Anthony House National Historic Landmark in Rochester, N.Y., and the Putnam County Historical Society and Foundry School Museum in Cold Spring, N.Y.

She previously served an internship at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Canadian Fulbrights are competitive. Risk, whose adviser is Marli Weiner, professor of history, is only the eighth UM graduate student to receive one since 1992.

The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Since its establishment in 1946, the program has benefited 108,160 Americans who have studied, taught or researched abroad and 178,340 students, scholars or teachers from other countries who have engaged in similar activities in the United States. The program operates in more than 150 countries.

Research associate dean

ORONO – Frederick Servello has been named associate dean for research in the University of Maine College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture and associate director of the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station.

In these roles, Servello will work with the Edward Ashworth, the college dean and experiment station director, in leading the college’s research programs. The job includes management responsibilities for UMaine’s research farms and gardens.

“Fred is an established leader in our academic community, with a long-standing record of accomplishment in teaching, research and public engagement,” Ashworth said. “This is an important role, central to UMaine’s interface with the statewide agricultural community, and I am certain that Fred will help us build on established momentum and continue to serve this vital sector of Maine’s economy.”

He also will serve as director of the Maine Agricultural Center at UM.

Servello joined the UM faculty in 1990 in the department of wildlife ecology. He served as department chairman from 2002 to 2007 and has been interim associate director of the experiment station. Before moving to Maine, Servello was a University of Kentucky Extension specialist in wildlife. He earned a doctorate in 1985 from Virginia Tech.

At UMaine, Servello has taught courses in natural resources policy and conducted research on an array of wildlife conservation and public policy issues in forest, marine, agricultural and wetland systems. His current research projects focus on aquaculture and seabird interactions, wildlife damage in wild blueberry agriculture, status and ecology of endangered marsh birds and wildlife and forestry interactions in Maine.